So, it's been a long time since I crawled out from under my blogger's block...or boulder, to write something here. I have been writing, but more intimately. Today, however, I feel led to write here about the "National Day of Prayer."
You may not even have noticed it, but the "National Day of Prayer" is today. I have not gone digging to uncover the history for you. I heard it on CNN earlier and if you are interested it can be readily accessed elsewhere. The purpose of this entry is not to inform anyone about the reasons for a "National Day of Prayer" or to give its history. I do wish to thank this President for not using it as an opportunity to display, or promote, his own personal variety of faith. I also wish to urge others to imagine what it has felt like for the previous 8 years to be excluded from this day, by some kind of Christian litmus test for whose prayers might be involved. I am amused at the carryings on of the Christian Right in its attacks on this President who, rightly so, has scaled back the publicity surrounding his own prayers and this day as a solely Christian stronghold on "National Prayer."
I am certainly not anti-Christian; far from it. I am merely urging a less arrogant variety than the one that would exclude other faith traditions from whole participation and representation in a National Day of Prayer. We are guaranteed a separation of church and state. But more than that phrase that has become so cliche'...the Constitutional principle is really better known as an Anti-Establishment Clause. What that means is that the government, and government offices and official SHALL NOT prefer one brand of faith over another. There is to be no government religion. No state stronghold on prayer. We are a multi-faith nation. Our National Day of Prayer must reflect that.
Unlike some, I welcome prayer EVERYWHERE and at all times. The topic of why, and my personal theology of prayer and its utility is another entry. For today, let me simply call for an inclusive day of prayer. Day of prayer, the public prayer breakfasts, the invocations and convocations at public universities and courthouses, legislatures and other public events MUST be inclusive. Examining our own Pledge of Allegience, when we recite "...and to The Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all....." we vow allegience not only to the flag...but to The Republic as one nation with liberty and justice for all. This isn't a Republic of one variety of Christian. It is, like it or not, a Republic comprised of other Christian denominations AND non-Christians. Non-Christian does not mean faithless people. It means the majority of the world and a huge sector of the American Republic. We non-Christians are entitled Constitutionally to representation, to liberty, to justice...AND to your allegience as much as you are entitled to ours as fellow Americans. I would not presume to shove my theology into your public prayer breakfast or other public event. You would not stand for (it has been made plain) a government in America that exclusively invoked Muhammad as Messenger of God at your White House Prayer Day. So why must the rest of us be asked to pray to Jesus?
I do not mean this to be disrespectful to my Christian friends. I mean only to ask for an expansive sensitivity and open heartedness to non-Christians in this National Day of Prayer. Let it be a day, finally, in the progress of Christian history that is not yet another, albeit televised, arrogant Crusade.
